(Pop) Cultural Marxism, Episode 17: I Have Friends Everywhere

2025-06-27

In episode 17 of (Pop) Cultural Marxism, Ajay and Isi once again find themselves in the regrettable position of praising the Walt Disney Company. After chatting about recent cultural highlights (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a 40th anniversary screening of Kurosawa’s Ran, and a Criterion retrospective on Johnnie To), they consider the popular and critical success of Andor’s second season, and ask what it means to describe a pop cultural text as “politically timely.” Their conversation turns to extratextual ecosystems (press junkets, interviews), Gilroy’s deep engagement with cinematic depictions of fascism and rebellion (Army of Shadows, The Conformist), architecture and costume design, season 2 high points (the Ghorman Massacre, Mon Mothma’s Senate speech), the politics of revolutionary alliances, and imperial bureaucracy. Finally, they consider how the show makes the transition—narratively, visually, musically—into the lore-dense timeline of Rogue One and A New Hope, and ponder its uncharacteristically fascistic final scene.

(Pop) Cultural Marxism is produced by Ryan Lentini.

Learn more about upcoming courses on our website.

Follow Brooklyn Institute for Social Research on Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky

Shownotes:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive)

Ran, dir. Akira Kurosawa (1985)

Exiled, dir. Johnnie To (2006)

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, dir. Jim Jarmusch (1999)

Battleship Potemkin, dir. Sergei Eisenstein (1925)

The Battle of Algiers, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo (1966)

Army of Shadows, dir. Jean-Pierre Melville (1969)

Jean-Paul Sartre, "The Republic of Silence" (1944)